Kentucky Wildcats running back Stanley Williams (18) was hugged by Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Demarco Robinson (9) and Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Dorian Baker (2) after Williams scored a touchdown on a long run as the University of Kentucky played Ohio University at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, September 06, 2014. This is first quarter action. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff Herald-Leader

Kentucky Wildcats running back Stanley Williams (18) was hugged by Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Demarco Robinson (9) and Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver Dorian Baker (2) after Williams scored a touchdown on a long run as the University of Kentucky played Ohio University at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, September 06, 2014. This is first quarter action. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff Herald-Leader

John Clay: A win is a win, especially with Gators up next

It was a win and let's not quibble here. Kentucky football is 2-0 at a time when the program would take a couple of wins over Transylvania, which doesn't field a football team.

Two is the exact number of games Kentucky football won in 2013. It's the exact number the Cats won in 2012. It's not like winning football happens all the time around here. It doesn't. You can look it up.

"Winning's hard," said Patrick Towles, the sophomore quarterback, who carried the football 22 times Saturday. "We put in all this work in the offseason to win football games. At the end of the day, we messed up some, but we won the football game."

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So Kentucky beat Ohio 20-3 at Commonwealth Stadium to go 2-0, and if it wasn't as swashbuckling as the 45-point blowout party at the expense of Tennessee-Martin the week before, chalk that up to a tougher opponent and the simple reality that football is just not that easy.

"I thought we just missed a whole lot of opportunities," said Neal Brown, the offensive coordinator.

Oh, well. Next Saturday brings opportunity both real and golden. With the prelims over, the real deal starts. We're talking SEC play. We're talking Saturday night in Gainesville, Fla., against the Gators in The Swamp.

"We're eager to get on the stage with the big dogs," was the way defensive end Bud Dupree put it.

In case you've forgotten — no one could blame if you tried really hard to forget — Kentucky football has lost 16 straight conference games.Kentucky hasn't won an SEC road game since beating Georgia in Athens in 2009. It hasn't beaten Florida since 1986. That's a lot of history to reverse.

It's not likely that Florida will take Saturday lightly, however. The Gators are coming off a disastrous 4-8 season. Coach Will Muschamp's seat is so en fuego he might as well be sitting directly on the equator. Saturday is Florida's conference opener, as well.

"I think they understand that," head coach Mark Stoops said Saturday when asked if his young team realized the immediate elevation in talent it is about to encounter. "We've just got to keep on putting our head down and going to work and getting better."

To be sure, there were bright lights Saturday, and we're not just talking about those new gray jerseys and metallic/chrome and blue helmets that the kids all seem to love.

The offense started on the first pull. The first two drives produced touchdowns and a 14-0 lead and that bubble of excitement inside the stadium construction zone that maybe, just maybe the same steamroller that got revved up last week would run a repeat.

That didn't happen. Ohio's veteran coach, Frank Solich, knows what he's doing. The Bobcats buckled down. The rest of the game, Kentucky moved the football, but failed to finish. Austin MacGinnis missed two of his four field goal attempts. There was a dropped pass in the end zone.

"We'll get those things fixed," promised Towles.

On defense, Kentucky held Ohio to 223 yards. The Bobcats rushed for only 74 yards, lowest rushing total by an FBS team against a Kentucky defense since Tennessee's 61 in 2011. That was the Matt Roark game when the Cats snapped a quarter-century losing streak to the Vols, by the way.

It's doubtful the Cats will take a game plan to the Sunshine State in which the quarterback carries the football 22 times. Stoops said he knows his defense has to be better at containing the quarterback in the pocket.

"We know," said Dupree, "it's going to be crazy."

After all, Tennessee-Martin was one step. Ohio was a step or two higher. Florida is a leap.

"There's a difference between being nervous and being scared," Towles said. "We're definitely not scared. We'll strap it up and play anybody, no matter who they are. We're going down there and win or lose there's not going to be any denying that we gave it all we got."